After difficult pandemic years, 2023 turned out to be a prospectus year for franchises, which remained strong even in the face of global inflation. With an increase of almost 15,000 units [1], the franchise model demonstrated its resilience to the lingering impacts of global inflation and the industry’s ability to thrive.
In the context of these stable growth dynamics, the question arises about the importance of training in developing franchise networks. The following data prove it is worth investing in good training programs and platforms: companies with comprehensive employee training programs have 218% higher income per employee than companies without formalized training [2].
However, more than one-time training may be needed, as individuals tend to forget up to 70% of the information received within 24 hours and almost 80% after a week, following the forgetting curve pattern. To change this, companies should consider implementing a modern digital and mobile training solution like an LMS for franchises to support a consistent and effective approach to training.
Challenge 1: Training is too short, chaotic, and too superficial
According to a survey by the International Franchise Association (IFA), 61% of respondents are worried about the cost, quality, or availability of work, and 25% are primarily concerned with the quality of work. Taking into account that franchisee training often lasts 2 weeks [3], these concerns are not surprising. Will this time be enough? Absolutely not. Training is crucial because it builds the franchisee’s trust in the franchisor. However, it turns out that the training topics are also too superficial.
Franchisees and employees usually receive initial training from the franchisor. Product and sales training is usually combined with a partner plant or branch internship. There is a lack of long-term strategy and goals. Because franchisors often believe that product training is enough, they forget that comprehensive educational programs are needed to develop strong franchise relationships that benefit both parties. This is an important oversight as franchisor’s involvement in training franchisees and onboarding partners affects customer service quality and final sales results.
Solution: Provide regular and structured courses
Training is a process, so one session does not solve the problem. To master sales techniques in franchise units, you need to repeat a given activity until it becomes a habit. A professional LMS for franchises will help with this in several ways:
- hierarchical learning structure – a hierarchical learning structure will be useful, where lessons make up courses and courses make up learning paths. This will help you stay organized in your training.
- Long-term strategy – the basis for knowledge transfer for the franchisee must be, on the one hand, compliance with the long-term strategy of the headquarters, and on the other hand, short-term business goals. A professional knowledge management system in the franchise will be helpful in this respect – it will enable you to create structured educational paths for your partners and quickly prepare ad hoc training.
- Scalability – an LMS for franchises can help you to scale courses, depending on the number of partners to be trained. Moreover, training paths can be customized to meet specific problems, needs, and challenges, embracing an adaptive learning approach.
- Tracking progress – using tracking and reporting tools will let you know whether franchisees have undergone training and acquired the necessary knowledge and skills.
With a LMS for franchises, you can create courses easily, especially if the platform provides you with an intuitive course builder. Then you can group them into learning programs by subject, like product training, sales training, etc., to keep order in various courses. You can set a due date for each course separately or do it at once for the entire learning track. Courses & learning paths will help you define user journeys and assign instructors, and as a result, coordinating numerous and various trainings will be much easier.
Challenge 2: The company does not have funds for training
The lack of funds for training employees and partners is an argument that is difficult to argue with. Especially when we consider the fact that although companies spend $130 billion annually on training their employees, only 25% of such training is effective [4]. What generates the most costs? Travel to the stationary training site, renting classrooms, printed materials, and the costs of trainers’ accommodation and meals.
Solution: Focus on online training and digital solutions
Online franchise training is a popular trend gaining more and more supporters. No wonder, because platforms such as LMS for franchises offer flexibility and convenience in transferring knowledge and can be especially useful for partners living in remote locations or those with tight schedules. And most importantly – e-learning generates lower costs.
Thanks to the digital technology offered by modern LMS for franchises, franchise training coordinators can instantly share key information with partners through their digital devices. This reduces costs such as training room fees, accommodation, food, field trainer salaries, training material costs, and more.
LMS are often offered in a subscription pricing model, where the central unit pays the platform provider per user. There are also various options available when it comes to LMS features. Samelane offers many beneficial solutions in the basic version, and for more demanding customers, it offers dedicated solutions and additional premium options.
Challenge 3: Need For Training Customization Depending On The Target Audience
Franchisees from various backgrounds and expectations will unlikely benefit from a one-size-fits-all training program. Additionally, the inability to pinpoint training errors further hinders their learning, suggesting the need for tailored training courses to enhance franchise effectiveness. LMS allows you to tailor training to the individual needs of franchisees, which often vary depending on previous experience or the franchise’s location.
Moreover, Samelane comes with the function of creating your organizational structure. This allows you to manage training for large and diverse groups of partners easily, and you keep all materials, feedback, and reports on one platform that you can access from anywhere in the world. A modern LMS also means the possibility of having master content and creating dedicated training paths, depending on the roles played in the organization or the implementation stage.
Solution: Use adaptive training within your LMS for Franchises
With a professional LMS for franchises, you can create new versions of learning tracks when learning requirements change. Additionally, you can supervise each version in detailed reports, seeing each user’s general trends and individual paths. This also enables tracing changes within any learning track in the learning track changelog.
For evaluating the skills and competencies of users, you can use review forms and surveys that enable collecting your learners’ feedback and checking the trends in detailed reports. For evaluating the skills and competencies of users, you can use review forms and surveys that will also allow you to collect your learners’ feedback and check the trends in detailed reports. This information will allow you to adjust the thematic scope, content formats, methods and tools according to the needs expressed by franchisees.
Moreover, If you notice any incorrect answers being repeated, I will tell you that the lesson content is not adequately conveying the correct information. In turn, failure to complete the quiz may indicate a lackadaisical approach to unit-level training.
Challenge 4: Lack of Continuous Learning
Once the initial training period ends, franchisees may face challenges not covered or adequately addressed during training. This includes handling new products or services, changes in management, and adapting to market trends. The absence of continuous learning and support mechanisms can hinder the franchisee’s ability to adapt and grow.
The trainers and training frequency greatly affect franchise performance as well. Sarantinoudi Ioanna and Maria Karamanoli’s study, “Information Transfer through Training in Franchising Enterprises,” reveals that 70.45% of franchisors regularly train their franchisees, while 29.55% do not [5]. The research also indicates that comprehensive training helps franchisees understand the franchisor’s goals, ethics, philosophy, market challenges, and operations.
Solution: Regular refresher training With LMS for franchises
The world of franchising is dynamic, and frequent updates of products, services, and promotional campaigns are commonplace there. Therefore, franchisees must constantly update their knowledge and skills to align with the headquarters’ business goals. That is why it is so important for franchisors to provide frequent training to update knowledge about the products or services and the company’s operational processes and organizational culture. Without continually updated knowledge through regular training based on current data and practices, a franchisee may have difficulty maintaining consistency and competitiveness.
In addition, the central company should be prepared to conduct ad-hoc training, if necessary, in response to current needs resulting from, for example, competitors’ activities or other unforeseen circumstances. Solutions such as LMS for franchises cope with these challenges, enabling quick updating of the materials database or training methodology. Additionally, all this is immediately available to all interested partners thanks to online access.
Challenge 5: Lack of insights into learning progress
Franchisors often need sufficient control over the day-to-day operations of their franchisees. This makes it difficult for them to see how well students are doing and how effective training programs are. As a result, it is difficult to determine whether franchisees meet brand standards. All this is a consequence of the lack of tools to monitor progress, and often, even if they have such tools, franchisors need to learn how to use them effectively. This leads to situations in which, for example, it is unknown whether important training, especially those needed before opening a franchise, has been completed.
Furthermore, the lack of detailed progress reporting makes it even more difficult for franchisors to spot and remedy any knowledge or skill gaps among their franchisees. With this information, it is easier to offer appropriate support or make changes that could improve franchisee performance and, in turn, franchise success.
Solution: Use LMS for tracking progress, gathering feedback and reporting
LMS for franchises often offers the franchisors access to multiple reporting options, which are the basis for effective training in large teams of franchisees. Therefore, a professional platform will provide advanced reporting tools, allowing you to automate many actions using real-time data. What’s more, the best platforms offer gamified assessments, making training fun and engaging, encouraging team competition, and breaking down barriers.
The e-learning platform for the franchise should also enable the generation of detailed progress reports for individual lessons within courses and individual courses within training courses. Only in this way, it is possible to control and correct existing problems. Real-time access to such data provides valuable insight into training outcomes, helping you monitor training effectiveness. This, in turn, helps maintain high training standards and identify knowledge gaps among franchisees.
LMS For Franchises: A Conclusion
In summary, the challenges of franchise training necessitate a strategic approach, and an LMS for franchises is a pivotal solution. When providing key benefits, such a platform can streamline the initial and continuous training efforts and ensure consistency, engagement, and compliance across the franchise network.
[2] https://businesstrainingexperts.com/knowledge-center/training-roi/profiting-from-learning/
